The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for delivering pre-recording voice messages to an intended recipient. More specifically, the invention provides for optimally delivering voice messages to an intended recipient by monitoring and analyzing real-time data associated with the phone call and by analyzing historical data related to prior phone calls to the intended recipient.
Currently, it is possible to pre-record voice messages and deliver these voice messages to various intended recipients by placing -phone calls to the intended recipients and playing the recorded message for the intended recipients. In order to deliver the voice message to a large number of intended recipients, such as in a telemarketing context, the delivery of these messages can be automated by utilizing a database to store a set of phone numbers to be called and by utilizing an automated delivery system to access the phone numbers stored in the database, place phone calls to the accessed phone numbers, and play the pre-recorded voice message after the telephone call is established. In this manner, no human intervention is required in order to place the phone calls and deliver the voice message to the intended recipients.
There are drawbacks, however, with the currently known methods for automating the delivery of pre-recorded voice messages. In today's environment, with the wide utilization of telephone answering systems, effective delivery of a pre-recording message is dependent upon, among other factors, whether the phone call is answered by a live recipient or by an answering machine. When a live recipient answers the phone call, delivery of the message should begin as soon as possible in order to minimize the called party's likelihood of hanging up. If a long period of silence is heard by the live recipient before the automated message delivery system begins playing the message, the live recipient is likely to either assume that there is a problem with the phone call (e.g., prank call, wrong number, etc.) or become impatient while waiting for the message to be played. In either situation, the called party is likely to hang up before the recorded message is played which results in an ineffective delivery of the message even though the phone call is completed.
When an answering machine is reached, as opposed to a live recipient, an appropriate delay by the automated message delivery system before playing the recorded message is not only desired but in most situations is required in order to effectively deliver the message. The delivery system must delay the playing of the message so that the message is not played while the recorded greeting by the called party is being played by the answering machine. The delivery system must await both the playing of the recorded greeting and the tone to signify recording has begun before playing the message. Any playing of the recorded message by the message delivery system before these events occur will again result in an ineffective delivery of the recorded message.
An additional issue with respect to effectively delivering messages to answering machines is the issue of ensuring that the message to be delivered is fully recorded by the answering machine, i.e., delivering the complete message from beginning to end during the recording interval of the answering system. If the pre-recorded message is not able to be completely played before the answering machine "times out", again, the message will not be effectively delivered even though the phone call was completed by the automated message delivery system. Therefore, in the answering machine context, as opposed to the situation where a live recipient answers the automated call, prompt initiation of playing the recorded message is not critical, rather the timing of the playing of the message is the critical factor in ensuring effective delivery of the recorded message.
Currently known automated phone message delivery systems are not able to differentiate between the answering of the phone call by a live recipient or by an answering machine. Therefore, the delivery sequence for the recorded message cannot be optimized in order to assist in ensuring effective delivery of the message.
A further drawback with respect to effectively delivering a pre-recorded message to an intended recipient by currently known systems is that the same problems that caused an earlier ineffective delivery of a recorded message to a particular intended recipient are likely to be encountered in subsequent phone calls to that same intended recipient. Currently known systems are not able to "learn" from previous attempts to deliver messages to particular phone numbers, or similar phone numbers, and are thus likely to repeat the same mistakes when delivering future messages to those same phone numbers.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide for an automated phone message delivery system that could optimize the probability that a pre-recorded message is effectively delivered to an intended recipient, regardless of whether the phone call is answered by a live recipient or by an answering machine. It would also be desirable to provide for an automated message delivery system that could access and analyze historical data from previous phone calls to a particular intended recipient in order to optimize the delivery of future recorded messages to that intended recipient.